Two non-purchasing-but-good bits of comics news I've stumbled over recently are that the formerly of this shire Mr Ellis is still promising to finish Dr Sleepless, and that Nate Simpson is still promising to finish Non Player. Both of these items please me immensely

@Flabyo, it is indeed sad, but the new Young Avengers by the duo will hopefully sell well and let them bring a larger fandase to Phonogram Vol.3, which is more likely to get further volumes if they can sell more in single issues.

down to business: how did everyone feel about HAPPY? i personally was let down. it seems more like a commentary on Millar-y stuff, and then the Macguffin just shows up and it turns a little annoying? also was really let down by morrisons claims 'we handle it like a special effect! its so crazy blah blah' i dont understand whats so special about it, except its blue. was just not into this as much as i wanted to be.

it is indeed sad, but the new Young Avengers by the duo will hopefully sell well and let them bring a larger fandase to Phonogram Vol.3, which is more likely to get further volumes if they can sell more in single issues

this...man. im not picking on you here, im just saying that in general, i hate that comics has come to this. i shouldnt have to give a fuck if Marvel Book #22b sells well. i dont care. i am very weary at this point of the onus that is placed on fans to 'help out! team comics! woo!'. this is uncomfortable for me- ive always supported underground/ small-scale entertainment and, yes, it does need to be successful to continue. i support what i like with my money. i dont download comics. but the climate with comics being, for the most part, a dying media has made a lot of things feel kind of slimey.

TL; DR i dont feel we as the fans should have to worry about keeping Every Single Series We Care About Alive. at some point the people involved int these bookshave to be responsible for keeping THEIR projects alive.

oh and since im evidently in a cranky mood all of a sudden, i am gonna just go out on a limb and say

Mr Ellis is still promising to finish Dr Sleepless, and that Nate Simpson is still promising to finish Non Player

the difference here is that Warren has a series to finish, NONPLAYER never even really got started. i know there was some sort of minor injury that nate simpson has now long since recovered from, but there really shouldve been more than ONE ISSUE done before it shipped. its over a year and a half old. this is one of those things where it bums me out that so much as asked of us. we were told, and asked to support this beautiful new NONPLAYER book, it was gonna be fantastic, the best looking book of the decade, whatever...when we support these things, it is NOT 'entitlement' to expect to see the story come out. ive seen a lot of pros who want to use the term entitlement to describe people just wanting to get what the pay for-and i dont mean literally 'well, you did. you bought 1 issue, and got 1 issue'-wrong. i got part 1 of a story that will never finish. one time, its cool. two times, annoying. over and over and over? you are essentially training your audience to not pay attention anymore

sorry. ranting. but hey, i AM really excited for more PHONOGRAM whenever it happens. would rather have the delay up front than 7 months between issues 4 and 5 yknow? and its one of my all time favorites

re: HAPPY.Loved it. I scored the Allred cover, too. Morrison's use of the word fuck got grating, but I didn't go in thinking that the comic was something incredible. My understanding of the conceit (Sin City detective has a MLP moment, which forces a traditionally insulated genre staple to take itself a little less seriously) was useful. Maybe I don't read enough Millar comics? The team is superb, the concept I like and the price is quite good. tl;dr I eagerly await more.

re: NONPLAYER. The timeline, as I understand it is, dude put out issue #1, broke his drawing arm/hand, lost his job, got hired at PopCap. Supposedly, he's still working on the series, if slowly. Life interferes. I think, for the record, you're wrong. It's exhausting for fans, absolutely. I thought that comic was incredibly pretty. And I'll buy #2 whenever it comes out.

But, I'll repeat what Neil Gaiman said about George R. R. Martin, in that Nate Simpson is not my bitch. That said, if Nate Simpson comes out with issue #2 sometime in the next 12 months, you and I will be completely within our rights to laugh heartily if he or Image says #3 will be finished on a reasonable schedule. I don't get to decide how Nate Simpson spends his time just because I purchased that first issue. I wish it would be more time doing NONPLAYER. I do know it's a bad way to treat your buyers.

re: YOUNG AVENGERS v. PHONOGRAMPHONOGRAM>YA. Like you, I hope this is as simple as a choice of delays: upfront rather than between issues. The between issue delay would be intolerable because of my affection for the comic.

edit: I'm also not sure to what extent Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie feel a need to tell more stories after this volume. If you listen to Gillen talk on podcasts, he's not talking about all of his lots of ideas for the comic going forward. He talks, mostly, about how he's 37 now and PHONOGRAM is a young man's series. That said, I doubt PHONOGRAM is the only independent work Gillen and McKelvie will do together.

just to clarify, i dont want to sound like one of those whiners who doesnt understand that Life Happens, but that if you are putting out something So Important, having nothing to follow up with after #1 comes out is poor planning all around. and THATS not even mentioning the rumors ive been told from certain people that NONPLAYER #1 was being shown around as 'in progress' for close to two years...

Yeah, regarding those rumours - I am pretty sure I heard at the time #1 was out that the likelihood of number two taking anything less than 12 months to complete was slim..

You know what though, I much prefer -and feel much less cheated by- people trying to put something of such quality out and not succeeding (for whatever reason), than to have yet another 'reboot' or 'zero' title that does nothing to move the storyline on, or provides little in way of character development which I feel I should buy because I'd already invested in the previous issues.

Anyway, I didn't mean for my throwaway comment to spawn any sort of disagreement amongst the fine fellows here.

How about instead you all gang up on me for never having read any of Phonogram at all, ever? Either that or persuade me why I should, if that is what you think. I have no real reason for not having read it, just for some reason I have never really been drawn to the series. Can somebody tell me exactly what I'm missing about it that makes everyone (it seems) such fans?

My lack of Phonogram exposure kinda makes me feel a bit like a tumblr user that has never seen an episode of (new) Dr Who, or Supernatural...

ha, yeah. i dont like 99% of the music covered in PHONOGRAM, but it is a book that works for anyone who has had their lives changed by music and all of the odd relationships music spawns. its great, BUT ive noticed theres no middle ground: people that like it REALLY love it. people that dont? it seems to physically repulse them haha

as far as GUTSVILLE, i talked to spurrier about it at the 2011 Phx comic con...its all written.

EDIT: also, whoa. ive know about that new Ware book, but somehow knowing what it is does not equal realizing what im going to be seeing in the actual physical copy. thats just so damn cool

@sneak046I don't think you ought to apologize. From the sound of it, there hasn't been a lot of comics discussion here and so long as people are being polite and reasonable, more comics discussion is desired. As for why you should read Phonogram, well, on a technical level, it is meticulously constructed and it wants to tell something worth hearing. It's got emotional hooks, too. It's about Britpop, but also about music and the matrices of relationships to those same songs. Like Joe said, Phonogram is steeped in the love of music and even to a guy that doesn't care for the genre in question, that unshakeable love comes through.

To be frank, more perceptive people with more experience with the comics medium than I love it and well, start there. I'm not gonna do better than them. So, can I give you a personal story instead?

It is the bustling Thought Bubble 2010 dance party. I am far, far from my home and my home away from home (USA and Rome, respectively) and alone. I am basically out of money and my hotel is very far away. I ask Kieron Gillen for money for a cab. He hands me 10 pounds, likely money he and McKelvie have made selling Phonogram THAT VERY DAY. It's hard not to speak positively about them after an experience like that.

I think Phonogram is a comic series worthy of your attention and the creators good people. But, frankly, Gillen and McKelvie could be total shitheads and Phonogram would still be worth your money and time.

Fairest #8Maybe Death the Deluxe Hardcover. I really really want it and I have money, and I have most of the other Sandman related comics except that...I'll see

@ErikCJones: Did you read the previous 7 issues of Fairest? I was wondering what people have been thinking about them, since I thought the first 6 issues were alright, if very pretty to look at, while #7 was amazing, especially as it does some cool twisting to established Fables characters.